The finale of this year's InNOLEvation Challenge awarded several innovative student projects.
Judged by a panel of elite entrepreneurs and business experts, The Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship Business Model competition gave student entrepreneurs a chance to compete for funding and prizes. |
In the culmination of a four part competition that had students pitching, designing, developing, and realizing their business ideas, the winning teams received funding of up to $5,000 dollars as well as other prizes meant to help the business succeed. They competed for funding in a “Shark Tank” style pitch presentation.
Out of the eighty student business ideas presented, seven made the final cut.
That list is as follows:
Out of the eighty student business ideas presented, seven made the final cut.
That list is as follows:
Wendy Plant, Director of Student Engagement and Alumni Relations and Entrepreneur in Residence, remarked that “You could tell that all the students really went out and did their homework as far as validating the ideas and going out and talking to people to make sure that what they thought about their business was true… More than half of them had a social entrepreneurship basis for what they were doing which I think is very impressive and encouraging.” |
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After some ceremony, the runner-up winners were announced. The following groups won $500 prizes for their businesses from The Jim Moran Institute:
Kenya Entrepreneurship Education Project (KEEP), co-founded by comparative education doctorate student John Muchira and curriculum and instruction doctorate student Brenda Wawire, created an online forum for building entrepreneurial capacity, awareness and education in Kenya;
The Opus Project, LLC., co-founded by international affairs major James Stage and political science major Mason Roth, designs and delivers skills-based educational software and content. The software, Queralyze, includes short videos and a database to assist educators in teaching students how to access and analyze complex information and communicate the analysis using informational and persuasive writing. This effort better prepares students for college and the workplace, and maximizes student success in Common Core State Standards performance;
Urban Bike Integrations (UBI), founded by environmental studies major Ian McGinley, is a company aimed at reducing the local carbon footprint in the City of Tallahassee by providing an intelligent and adaptive e-bike sharing program for pedestrian-oriented residential communities;
The World Phone, co-founded by business major Michael McCluskey and finance major Naveed Darbani, created an e-learning business to match language learners together for the purpose of conversing in the foreign language of their choice
Kenya Entrepreneurship Education Project (KEEP), co-founded by comparative education doctorate student John Muchira and curriculum and instruction doctorate student Brenda Wawire, created an online forum for building entrepreneurial capacity, awareness and education in Kenya;
The Opus Project, LLC., co-founded by international affairs major James Stage and political science major Mason Roth, designs and delivers skills-based educational software and content. The software, Queralyze, includes short videos and a database to assist educators in teaching students how to access and analyze complex information and communicate the analysis using informational and persuasive writing. This effort better prepares students for college and the workplace, and maximizes student success in Common Core State Standards performance;
Urban Bike Integrations (UBI), founded by environmental studies major Ian McGinley, is a company aimed at reducing the local carbon footprint in the City of Tallahassee by providing an intelligent and adaptive e-bike sharing program for pedestrian-oriented residential communities;
The World Phone, co-founded by business major Michael McCluskey and finance major Naveed Darbani, created an e-learning business to match language learners together for the purpose of conversing in the foreign language of their choice
Third place and winner of the $2,000 prize, Door to Dump, is a startup that brings trash collection services to student apartments and dorms all around Tallahassee. (As someone who has lived on the 3rd floor of an apartment complex, this service sounds like a godsend)
Second place went to Terraform design, an architectural firm that designs and sells architectural designs made using “parametric algorithmic modeling.” Terraform design was awarded $3,000.
The winner of the overall $5,000 prize was Divvyup Socks, a social entrepreneurship startup that sells freshly-designed socks online (and at Market Wednesday) and then donates a pair to homeless shelters for every pair sold. Divvyup also won the Social Entrepreneurship Award, beating out education startup The Opus Project for the award, an opportunity to compete in the Resolution ® Project’s Social Venture Challenge and apply for a Resolution Fellowship.
The big winners of the day, Jason McIntosh and Mitchell Nelson of DivvyUp (also the winners of the FSU SharkTank competition announced at Digitech 2015) have a bright future for their charitable business.
Second place went to Terraform design, an architectural firm that designs and sells architectural designs made using “parametric algorithmic modeling.” Terraform design was awarded $3,000.
The winner of the overall $5,000 prize was Divvyup Socks, a social entrepreneurship startup that sells freshly-designed socks online (and at Market Wednesday) and then donates a pair to homeless shelters for every pair sold. Divvyup also won the Social Entrepreneurship Award, beating out education startup The Opus Project for the award, an opportunity to compete in the Resolution ® Project’s Social Venture Challenge and apply for a Resolution Fellowship.
The big winners of the day, Jason McIntosh and Mitchell Nelson of DivvyUp (also the winners of the FSU SharkTank competition announced at Digitech 2015) have a bright future for their charitable business.
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When asked what the win meant to the team, Mitchel Nelson responded: “Momentum. If anything, it proved that the model is something that people care about and that we’re on the right path. We’ve seen the InNOLEvation challenge since freshman year and to actually hold the title is pretty incredible. It’s definitely great validation for us.”
Jason McIntosh said that “This $5,000 will go towards us developing our own designs that will then help us facilitate the donation of even more socks. But regardless of whether we won or lost today, we would have kept going… but it’s great having this funding behind us.” After the ceremony I continued to speak with Wendy Plant about the event. When asked if she would say that there is an emerging startup culture in Tallahassee, she said “Yeah I would, and of all kinds from tech companies and software platforms, reuse and recycling and trash disposal to the (DivvyUp) sock business. It’s a really broad spectrum.” Overall the excitement and passion that these students and faculty have for entrepreneurship and solving social problems through business is promising for Florida State and for the business environment of the future. At FSU, at least, it seems that business and social awareness make a powerful combination. For more abou The Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship, visit jmi.fsu.edu. -by Nicholas Farrell, Editor In Chief |